Dear and appreciated members of ALAFAVE, it is my pleasure to greet you. Thank you for your participation at the World Candle Congress, held in San Juan Puerto Rico last April. Particularly, I would like to recognize the effort of our colleagues who came from distant parts of the world like Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Our global reunion was successful, we had a beautiful view, interesting activities for the industry, and of course, the opportunity to share with our friends and industry colleagues who are part of our great family.
I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that our association is focused on developing a comprehensive strategic plan, the objective is to obtain direction for our future actions as a result of a scrutinized analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We need to know where we are standing in order to know where we want to be, not only in our association but also in our companies and our own lives.
Our strategic plan is composed of a mission, values, vision, SWOT analysis, strategic objectives and a balanced scorecard. These tools will provide the board of directors with useful insights to measure the efficiency of our association; in order to obtain better and improved ways to satisfy and deliver a great experience for all members.
During the months of May and June our Executive Director Isabel Muench and I traveled to Europe, in representation of ALAFAVE, we attended the ECA conference in Vienna, Austria and the AECM conference at Krakow, Poland. We were able to share experiences with our European colleagues, learned about their trendy products, industry regulations and standards on raw materials and finished products. I want to highlight that their regulations are focused and driven by health care and the environment awareness. We also took advantage of the trip to forecast an outcome for our next World Candle Congress 2019, and perhaps consider Europe as the site of our reunion.
On behalf of the executive board of directors, I would like to recognize and thank Arte Gama Editores Company, from Mexico, for their contribution by launching the first on-line workshop. Arte Gama introduced us to their different products, which by the way are of excellent quality; 7 candle manufacturers attended the presentation. The workshop consisted of showing a video/presentation by connecting all the participants through our GoToMeeting link. All suppliers interested on promoting their products don’t hesitate to contact us, this is a free workshop! ALAFAVE is in charge of sending out the invitation and promoting the event.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that in ALAFAVE we are working with the hardest effort and professionalism; to strengthen the industry and maintain the prestige of our association. We want to give our members the possibility to explore new options and continue to grow by easing the transition of their global opportunities.
Thank you for taking the time to read these lines and for supporting us. We are looking forward to continue to assist our great ALAFAVE family. Wishing you all the best and stay tuned for our December edition.
